Thousand Page Trump Card
by EquusNanashi
Summary: Percy Jackson never made it to Camp Half-Blood. Luke still stole Zeus's master bolt and Kronos is making preparations to invade Olympus. The catch, five books fall out of the sky about a certain green eyed boy who could be the downfall of or hero of Olympus. Will Kronos use the books to his advantage or not? Read and find out. AU-Set near the end of BotL, Twisted Kronos/Luke fathe
1. Chapter 1

**Thousand Page Trump Card**

**Summary**: Percy Jackson never made it to Camp Half-Blood. Luke still stole Zeus's master bolt (shockingly the two brothers made peace with each other and stopped war) and Kronos is making preparations to invade Olympus. The catch, five books fall out of the sky about a certain green eyed boy who could be the downfall of or hero of Olympus. Will Kronos use the books to his advantage or not? Read and find out. AU-Set near the end of BotL, Twisted Kronos/Luke father son relationship

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**Authors Note**: Hello! This is Equus starting yet another fanfiction. I Watched the Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters movie a few weeks ago and was sucked into the series for a second time. And looking through I found that the same characters were used over and over again for the 'Characters read the books' fics and wanted to do one from a new angle. The Bad Guys! So that is what this is. Of course it dose have another plot to go around unlike many of the 'Character read's the books' stories.

And thank you to my wonderful editor and beta Beautiful-Warriors!

Please read and review.

OH! and I do not own the characters of the Percy Jackson series. They belong to Rick Riordan. Though I am unhappy with that I do not have enough dracamas to buy them from him.

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** The Downfall begins**

_14:17 Hours, Mt. Tam/Mount Othrys, Titan Fortress _

It wasn't often that Luke got time to be alone, I mean _really_ alone. Not the, _I am the only mortal in a room full of shadow monsters, or the I have a Titan Lord in my head, and defiantly not the I have to train a bunch of idiot half-bloods that so happen to not know which end of a blade you hold_, alone. To put it simply Luke had finally gotten a few hours to himself in a secluded corner of the fortress.

Said corner happened to be the massive library. A place no monster dared set foot, as if they would be turned to dust just by picking up one of the ancient tomes. As for the demigods, well most hated reading in general because of their dyslexia, so any library was considered torture of the worst kind. Even if the library was in a language they were hardwired from birth to read.

In a yellowed scroll of The Iliad (the original copy) Luke found solace from the real world. There was no Titan army that was waiting for their master to order the first attack. When he would have to slaughter his own siblings as the camp was invaded. No need to worry about the few short weeks left until he would become an immortal against his will. Instead memories of a different time seemed to drift off the page and into his mind.

Luke had loved reading his entire life. When he was still with his mother it had been one of the only escapes he had from the hell that was his everyday life. After he had run away that love had only grown; he would spend hours in any library or bookstore he could. When he had found Thaila and then Annabeth his title as the Book Thief had been cemented. At night he would read to the two, helping Annabeth through the many Magic Tree House books he had swiped off of shelves or out of backpacks.

Now as the second in command to Kronos himself, every chance of escape into the library was a blessing from a god somewhere. If asked Luke would adamantly claim it was not his father.

Hermes had been on Mount Othrys twice. Both times to sneak looks at his wayward son, as the god knew that shortly his time on the throne would end. How could it not? The Hero of the Great Prophecy was not in Olympus's grasp. Nico, son of Hades, was the only living child of the big three that was known about and he was barely 12. War would be upon the gods before he reached 16 and Olympus would fall. Even Apollo had said that the prophecy was not about Nico di Angelo, but if not him then who?

This question was echoed in his son's mind as while. Kronos had sent his best trackers out to find a child of the Big Three, but each one came back empty handed. It was as if there was a page missing out of one of the books in the library, and without that one page the rest of the story made no sense at all.

But he would not think about that now Luke reminded himself. He was trying to relax away from the incompetence he worked with, rolling out more of the scroll Luke was absorbed in the tale in a matter of minutes. Causing him to completely miss his Lord walking out from between two book cases.

Kronos was not surprised to find Luke Castellan sitting in the library. More than once he had caught the young demigod asleep at one of its many tables. His sandy blond hair the only thing visible over the piles of books he would have stacked around him. The Titan of Time for his part would let the mortal rest. It was usually while Luke slept that Hermes would make an appearance and Kronos just loved to play with his grandson.

It did not help that Luke looked so much like his father. They shared the same hair, ice blue eyes and facial structure, one any teacher would recognize as that of a trickster, though there were also differences between the two. The scar on Luke's face was one, the mannerisms he had was another. Luke, even after years at camp, would still eat with one arm wrapped around his plate as if protecting it from unseen assailants. As soon as he entered a room it was scanned for all exits, the persons in said room analyzed for even a inkling of threat. Kronos had watched his grandson enough over the years to know that none of those were from him.

Walking closer to his second in command Kronos could only smirk as memories of the last time Hermes made an appearance took to the forefront of his mind. It had been a few weeks after Atlas had been forced back under the sky. News had just reached them that the demigod Annabeth had become a Hunter of Artemis. Luke had been saddened by the news but not entirely surprised, though all the same, he disappeared into the library for hours.

At the time, Kronos had been about to burn some of Luke's precious books when he had spotted Hermes hovering around his son. Never getting close enough to touch him, but still close enough to be seen as protective. Protecting him from what the Titan of Time did not know.

"You know he will never forgive you for being here." Kronos had said his voice a cold yet sophisticated lilt with an edge cutting like glass.

"And yet I can be no other place in the world," Finally standing still the god of travel looked toward his grandfather. "He is after all my son."

"Your son indeed." Walking past Hermes, he ignored the god's growl of warning and stopped right behind the demigod's chair. "You do realize that your son stole Zeus's master bolt? That he betrayed the gods by serving me, something no one in your family will be willing to forgive."

To infuriate the god further Kronos ran his fingers through the demigod's hair. A sign of ownership, dominance, a claim; all the things that Hermes should have had over his son Kronos showed with one simple movement. "Admit it," flicking his golden eyes to the younger immortal the Titan could not help but smirk. "You fucked up."

Shifting his weight from one foot to the other Hermes could not look away from his son. "That may be, but one thing I have learned over the millennium is to never give up on family. And whether he likes it or not he is still my son." Finally tarring his eyes away from the sleeping form he glared at his grandfather. "I refuse to allow you to use him as a play thing."

"Is that what you believe I see him as?"Kronos's voice took on a cold edge.

"What else could it be?"

"I will be making him immortal. Against his will, yes, but he is too valuable to be wasted by the passage of time. I would never gift one of my play things with immortality. You can ask your father about that if you do not believe me."

Silence claimed the room as Hermes registered what had been said. The god had been about to reply when his phone rang. Reading the text he cursed. "Go to your brother," Kronos ordered, "You have outstayed your welcome as it is."

Hermes left, leaving Kronos deep in thought. His hand was still in Luke's hair when a Empousia came to inform him that the Gorgon's had arrived.

Finally behind his second in command, Kronos repeated the movement he had done that night causing the demigod before him to stiffen before turning around. Surprise flitted over his face before a quick "mi'lord" was murmured. If any other being had been in Luke's position, they would already have been dead, but the relationship between Luke and titan allowed some leniency on his part.

Most of the army believed that Luke was a sex partner Kronos would never share. A small section scoffed at the mere thought and believed that Luke reminded him of his own wayward lover Rhea, who even after all the years he could not find fault in. But no matter what was discussed, they were all wrong. Kronos had watched and helped Luke from a young age, knowing that Luke would be the one to help him rise once again. It was not his fault that along the way he had developed fatherly feelings for the demigod.

As Luke blinked rapidly to adjust to the bright light that poured through the westward windows he met Kronos's golden eyes. Kronos's long black hair was pulled into a low pony tail tied with a leather cord, but a few rebellious strands framed his sharp face. Many of the females that served the Titan Lord claimed he was the Devil incarnate. Unnaturally beautiful, hiding a manic deadliness behind charming smiles and words of care.

Again he repeated "My Lord," this time accompanying it with a bow of the head. Licking his dry lips he looked up at the Titan of Time.

"Good afternoon, Luke" The Titan Lord walked around the table and sat down opposite the young man. "I should have known you would be in here. One would almost assume you were in a relationship with the books the way you hurry here whenever you have free time."

The demigod blushed faintly "I may be addicted to the feel of paper running over my fingers and to the written word, but I am not in love with a set of books."

A small smile tugged at the corners of the Titans mouth. "Of course not. I came to ask when the next batch of demigods is set to arrive from South Africa."

"Within the next two days. They were to IM the dracaenae in charge of recruiting after they were out if the Panama Canal. I can ch- OW WHAT THE FUCK!" A teal book had fallen out of nowhere and had struck him from the top of his head, causing him to shout more out of surprise than pain. He looked up in time to see four more books to crash into his face. Cussing like a banshee Luke picked up the books and set them on the table.

The books were numbered I to V. Each was a different color: The first being teal, the next orange, then royal blue, red, and finally dark grey. A note floated down toward the Kronos who caught it, quickly reading the note to himself.

_Dear Titan Lord,_

_Here we have five books created from the memories of an, undisclosed at this time, demigod. Said books are about his entrance into our world and through the second Titan-God war. If you are interested in using these books to your advantage, then call a meeting for your council and begin with the book marked I. If not leave the books where they are and they will disappear. _

_Your wayward lover._

After finishing the note Kronos looked over the books once more. A chance to one up the gods had been given to him. And no matter what was said about him, Kronos would never look a gift horse in the mouth, at least not from Rhea.

Quickly picking up the books he walks out of the room. Right behind him was Luke. Who was reading the note he had snatched out of his Lords pocket. Summoning a dracaenae the demigod explained to her in no uncertain terms that every member of the council was to be in the war room by the time he and Kronos entered. Bowing lowly, the dragon woman swept into the shadows spreading the news to her kin.

From the library it took about fifteen minutes to reach the war room. Just enough time for Luke to finally get back in the mind set of a leader. As the bronze double doors opened the rumble of voices grew softer until there were only patches of murmurs running throughout the room.

Scanning the room Luke noted that the dracaena had completed what he ordered. The Monsters seated at one side of the room, the gods and titans that were loyal to Kronos on the other. Behind a throne made out of concert, was Atlas holding up the sky. Now the throne was indeed Kronos's. After spending so much time in the deepest pit in hell he had lost the need of overly ornate objects.

As Kronos sat, a hush fell over the room, all heads turned in his direction. "I have been in contact with my wife. She has seen it fit to gift us with a set of books that will give us an edge over the Olympians. All you need to know is that they are the memories of a demigod who has, no, will play a role in the war to come." Turning to Luke he handed the first book over. In a lower voice he teased. "Since you love to read so much you will start."

Nodding. Luke gulped before opening the book.

"**Chapter One: I Accidently Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher."**


	2. Bets are Made

Here is my second chapter!

To **Dreams2Paper11** thank you! I had been waiting for one of these too and just got tired of waiting so decided to write one! As for Kronos. I have to agree with you the books did portray him as foolishly arrogant, and not a proper Titan Lord.

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And I have some information to give you so you are not confused later on in the reading.

The events of the first three Percy Jackson books happened but different people took Percy's place.

In the first book the three demigods that took that quest were sucked into the pit and died. When the gods found this out they reconciled and Ares was found to have the helm of darkness.

Second book Clarisse goes on the quest and Annabeth and another character sneak out to help her. Annabeth has been getting dreams from Grover as she was the one to get the empathy link. They save the fleece but it is taken from them by Luke. Luke uses it to heal Kronos. And Clarisse, Annabeth and the other demigod are saved by Chiron and the party ponies.

Third book Grover finds Nico and Biannca. Annabeth and the Stoll brothers go to collect them but Dr. Thron takes Annabeth when things go south. Artemis arrived and had her brother take the demigods and hunters to camp. Nico goes after the quest party because he cant leave Biannca and when she dies he is heart broken. When they reach Atlas's mountain Nico frees Annabeth and together they free Artemis. Grover is run through by Luke when he blocks a strike that would have left her (Artemis) regenerating for quite some time. Artemis escapes with Annabeth, Nico and the dying Zoe.

Annabeth then becomes a hunter and takes Zoe's place as Artemis's Lieutenant.

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What is in **bold** was written by Rick Riordan and the characters belong to Rick Riordan everything else is mine or common ownership (i.e. Titans and gods).

Here is a list of all the characters in the room.

**Titans**: Aigaios, Atlas, Hyperion, Iapetus, Krios, Kronos.

**Gods/Goddesses**: Janus, Morpheus, Hecate, Nyx (I need help with finding more of the minor gods and goddesses that sided with Kronos)

**Monsters**: Limia, Kelli the Empoisai, Keto, Cacus, Agrius and Oreius, the Gorgons, A group of Hellhounds, Morrian the ice giant, Maenads, Dr. Thron the Manticore, the Minotaur, Queen Sess (queen of the Scythian Dracaenae), the Master Telekhines, and Lycaon king of the werewolves.

No other Demigods other than Luke in the reading so far. Now on with the Story!

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_Nodding Luke gulped before opening the book._

"**Chapter One: I Accidently Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher."**

Around the room the war council shifted. Those with demigod children were suddenly more interested in the reading. They would finally be able to see what their children think and went through. The Titans on the other hand wanted to know why Rhea would send back a couple of books about a random demigod who was supposed to be their only hope at winning.

All the while many of the monsters growled at the chapter title. One thing they hated more than the gods was the loss of time they had when regenerating. Luke flicked his eyes over to that side of the room and saw a number of the monsters, Dr. Thorn the manticore and the gorgon sisters included, sharpening their claws.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

Many of the gods snorted in humor at this.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

Luke's voice faltered for just a moment before caring on as if it had never happened. Kronos cast him a sharp sideward glance, was he regretting the choices he has made?

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

Smiles were seen on the faces of Keto and many of the other monsters at that.

**If you are a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

"Why would mortal's be reading this?" Nyx asked coolly her black eyes flashing.

Looking up from the book, Luke answered, "I guess that these are the demigods thoughts on being one of us. Not to mention the fact that his memories were put into book format. Meaning there has to be a background of sorts."

When no one spoke up after that explanation he continued reading.

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

A rumble could be heard before a muttered "I like this kid," came from Atlas.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

**Yeah. You could say that.**

Many of the immortals laughed. It was refreshing to hear a human, even a half human admit to something.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, **

That sobered them up. Hecate frowned sadly at this thinking of all the children she has lost to the cruelty of the world. Many of her children left camp after their first summer never to return because of the Olympians stupidity.

**but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty eight mental case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

Kronos shook his head, the child clearly had no idea who he was, and if the title was anything to go by he was going to be in for one dangerous wakeup call.

**I know-it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

Luke tensed at the name. He knew that name from somewhere, he just couldn't place it.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

_No it couldn't be_, Luke thought, a face taking shape in his mind.

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep. **

"Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me!" Luke exclaimed, interrupting his own reading.

"What is it?" Kronos asked, ignoring the profanities at the moment.

"It's Chiron, the fucking centaur was teaching him for a whole year. The only time he would ever leave camp was if it was a child of the…" Luke was caught up in his thoughts again.

"A child of what?!" Altas demanded. He was a General he did not like being left in the dark.

"A, a child of the Big Three." Luke sat straighter in his chair as if proud to have information the Titan did not. Even though he was Kronos's second in command, many monsters, titans, and gods still thought he was somewhat of a joke. "If this Percy Jackson is a child of the Big Three we may have just found the child of prophecy."

"Then what are we waiting for! Read!" Atlas bellowed.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind the scenes tour of the marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.**

Looks passed throughout the room at this. They all knew demigod luck was bad and he didn't even know what he was yet.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

Frowning as he continued to read Luke couldn't help but remember what it was like when he was younger, no matter what he did he was always in the wrong.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomanic girl, hitting my best friend Grover**

Luke tensed at the name of the satyr. Grover wasn't alive anymore, hadn't been for the last seven months, having been killed while trying to defend Artemis from Atlas. But the name still set his blood boiling.

**in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich. **

At this Kelli the Empousai hissed in anger. "My Lord, may we kill this mortal?"

Kronos looked over at her. "If she continues as she is you may very well go hunting for her."

Sitting back in her seat Kelli had to control her anger. She did not know this demigod but she understood how it felt to be bullied.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. **

Some of the gods exchanged looks. This boy sounded like a satyr.

**On top of that, he was crippled. **

Defiantly a satyr.

**He had a note excusing him form PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

Luke looked disgusted. This was the same satyr that had found Thaila, Annabeth and himself. Just reading about the satyr made him want to run Grover through with his sword again. Too bad he had already killed him.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck I his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it!" Kelli cried pounding her fists against the cold marble floor as murmurs of agreement spread through the room.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. **

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"No! Why did you stop him boy? This female needs to be shown a lesson on who is the alpha." Lyacon growled in annoyance, ignoring Cacus and Morrian inching away from him.

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

"That's why there is the mist," Hecate muttered, glaring at the book.

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobfit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Burnner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up font in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

Kronos smirked; it had survived far longer than that.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele**_**, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

The monsters started taking bets on who she really was. So far there were 50 dracamas on an Empousai, 20 on a Harpy, and 75 on a Scythian Dracaenae. Kronos turned a blind eye to it; he did not have the patience for unimportant things.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Nervous breakdown my tail," one of the Maenads said loud enough for all the monsters to hear. Causing laughter to burst from many of them, the immortals just gave them odd looks before focusing on the reading again.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

Luke grinned slightly at that. Same old Grover so easily tricked with no ability to lie.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up?**_**"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

Kelli winced at that. Remembering one time she was training a new she-demon who had said something far louder than she should have and they both were run out of a town. The young priest she had been trying to seduce at the lead.

It had not mattered that the priest was Christian, and she could have easily over powered him, holy water still hurt like hell.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"**Mr. Jackson," He said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

Atlas nodded in approval of the boy. He had manners it seemed and knew who to respect; little did Atlas know that he would be eating those words the more they read.

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

Many of the immortals grimaced, glancing over at Kronos. Why did the centaur have to choose that one?

"**Yes," Mr. Brunneer said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because…"**

"**Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"God?!" The Titians roared, many taking offenceto the implication.

Anger bubbled quickly under Kronos's skin before Luke cautiously took one of his hands. Slowly rubbing his thumb over the back side of the Titan Lord's hand in comfort. Calming slightly, though still fuming Kronos quickly put a look of complete serenity on his face; he knew Chiron would never allow the mistake to pass**. **

A few of the immortals (Iapetus, Nyx and Morpheus) nodded their thanks to Luke for diverting a disaster.

"**God?" Mr. Brunneer asked.**

"**Titan," I corrected myself. "And…he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Try being there," Hyperion sighed a little green.

"**-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans." I continued, "and the gods won."**

There was silence as the past loss was mentioned. "Did he really just simplify one of the most destructive wars this world has ever known as '_this big fight'_?" someone asked.

Flipping back to the pervious page Luke reread that section. "Yes, he did."

"This kid is going to get himself killed."

"Not if we can help it." Luke muttered.

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids'."**

"Actually," Keto mused, "It is on the job application for Phorcys's Aquarium."

"Really?" Nyx asked in complete disbelief.

"Yes, though I think it is time for him to rewrite the application. As it has been the same for the past 600 years."

"**Any why, Mr. Jackson," Mr. Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, dose this matter in real life?"**

"**Busted," Grover muttered.**

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

"I can't wait to kill her!" Kelli interrupted. "Maybe I should dare one of the new recruits to use her as a practice dummies. Hmm. That could work."

Shaking her head at the she-demon Limia started muttering a spell under her breath while holding her hand over the betting money. No one was going to be able to steal the money in anger of their loss after she was finished.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

_Of course not, _Luke mused to himself sadly. _You would have to know what you are for that to happen. Then the monsters would be after you and you would never have peace…_

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. **

The room got colder; frost covered the floor and froze around the Titan Lords throne. Luke looked over nervous. He had seen quite a few of the Titan Lords moods but never this one. Still on his face was the mask of serenity, but if one knew how to look or just felt the temperature change they would know Kronos was not happy.

"Read godling," Iapetus says softly, he being the Titan of mortality, pain, and death knew what Kronos had gone through.

**On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys puching each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go-intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

_Not everything_, Luke thought as memories of his past clouded his vision.

Kronos was snapped out of his mood when he heard Luke's thoughts_. Am I really doing the right thing? Is this the way to get the gods to see their wrongs? What would Thalia say if she saw me now?_

Slipping further into Luke's mind Kronos gave the equivalent of a mind hug before murmuring into Luke's mind. _This is the path you have chosen. Your family is here now._

Glancing over at Kronos out of the corner of his eye Luke nodded his head before continuing to read.

"**You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

"**About the Titans?"**

"**About real life. And how your studies apply to it." **

"**Oh."**

"**What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

"He doesn't even know what he is! Do you believe he will understand what you're saying?!" Kelli exclaimed seeming to forget she is was talking to a book.

The other monsters stared at her.

"What!?"

"You're talking to a book…"

"So! I gah-I hate that centaur!"

"Luke," Kronos said cutting over the ranting and successfully silencing everyone, "Continue."

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard. I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person whe had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite that fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be as **_**good**_**; he expected me to be **_**better**_**. **

_I know that feeling,_ Luke thought, momentarily forgetting it was a book. _Never been good enough for the immortals._

**And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at the girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive storms, flooding, wildfires from lighting strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

Luke felt uneasy as he read the last line. This sounded like three years ago after he had stolen the master bolt. The civil war had been adverted but it had cost three of Camp Half-Blood's own their lives.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Luchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

More bets were placed as to what Mrs. Dodds could be in first place was an Empousa and last was a Fury.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"**Detention?" Grover asked.**

"**Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he ws going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said. "Can I have your apple?"**

"That satyr is dead already isn't he Luky?" Kelli asked.

"Yes," Luke replied annoyed with the nickname the Empousia had given him..

"Was it painful?"

Putting down the book Luke flashed his white teeth at the council in a sardonic smile as a glint of promised pain flitted through his eyes. Luke's smile made some of the council shift. He had been spending too much time around Kronos if he could pull off that smile. "Of course."

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat.**

Kronos glared at Lycaon with the news that a child of the big three was living in New York. The consequences' of leaving the child right under the gods center of control were too great.

The werewolf sensed his lord watching him and looked up. Catching his lord's gold eyes a silent conversation passed between the two.

Kronos shifted his head lightly at the book telling the King that he _was going_ to find this demigod. An eyebrow was raised by Lycaon as if to say that he had already checked that area multiple times and there was no one there. Kronos then fingred Backbiter lightly while watching the werewolf kings reaction. Lycaon nodded his head completely understanding the threat before exiting the room. It would seem he had a hunt to prepare. This one had escaped his pack before but with the new information they were getting, nothing would stop him from finding the brat.

**I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

Luke continued to read as if everything in the book was not affecting him. But Kronos and a few others noticed his fingers tightening around the book as Percy's mother was mentioned as well as the clenching of his jaw as he read about Percy's relationship with his mother.

Luke refused to put a name to the emotion that was welling up inside of him. But if he had to it would have been named jealousy. Why did this demigod get a fantastic relationship with their mother well his was so horrible? It wasn't fair!

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit**

Kelli hissed as the girl was mentioned before beginning to mutter about all the painful ways she could make Nancy die.

**appeared in front of mw with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"**Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckle were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

Dr. Thorn and some of the duller monsters laughed at this.

**I tried to stay cool. The school councilor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

"Last bets will be taken now!" Limia called out to the room.

"It has to be a harpy!" One of the Maenad's cried.

"No! She can't be!"

"Yes, she is!"

"N-"

"She's a fury!" The Master Telekhines cut in.

"No she can't be!" One of the gorgons sisters cried out.

"She ha-"

"SILENCE!" Kronos bellowed out silencing the room in seconds, "There will be no more betting. I assume we will be shortly finding out what this Mrs. Dodds is. Now I would like to finish this chapter within the next decade."

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

"**-the water-"**

"**-like it grabbed her-"**

Atlas was the first to get it. "He is a son of the Sea God."

"We cannot tell just from a small amount of evidence like that!" Hyperion stated.

Kronos looked amused as his two brethren started arguing. So the child of prophecy was one of Poseidon's. He should not have been surprised; Poseidon was his most powerful child. The only one of his children to defeat multiple titan's by himself. His godlings also had the most powers out of the Big Three.

"Why don't we ask Aigaios?" Kronos cut in coolly. "He is after all the Titan of Sea Storms and Oceanus's partner."

As everyone turned to Aigaios, he ignored the expectant stares he was getting. "Believe he is the Sea Gods spawn, I will wait for further proof. If the Sea Gods child he be more powerful than any hero you fought in the past centuries he is."

After spending a moment switching around words to make since of the titans confusing statement, Luke began to read again. He knew the monsters were getting anxious to see who won the bet.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, ect., ect., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting far all semester. "Now, honey-"**

"**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"No!" Janus cried out. "You never, EVER guess the punishment! You only make it worse then!"

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"I just told you it was the wrong thing to say!" Janus moaned from his chair, causing Nyx and Hecate to laugh at him.

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"**Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

"You think that you can bring the satyr back from the dead? Because I think I want to thank him for trying to keep the kid alive, then kill him all over again." Kelli asked under her breath to Limia.

Shaking her head in amusement Limia answered her. "I could. But then Hades would know where we are."

"So you mean it's a no."

"Exactly," Limia agreed

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

"**I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

"Of course not. He is a satyr, there is no way he could have made the water grab her." Atlas grumbled as he shifted his hold on the sky.

"**But-"**

"**You-**_**will**_**-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"That's not going to help." Luke said, knowing that he would have never tried to get his friends in trouble with him when he was younger.

"**It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"**Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now**_**."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

_Well let's see, _Luke thought,_ she's a monster and all monsters are fast. You are so screwed kid._

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the black place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

More than a few immortals grumbled at this statement and how it got their children killed.

"I would not be so sure about that." Junas retorted to the book. As Luke scanned ahead he burst out laughing.

"What'ssss ssso funny?" Queen Sess asked.

**I wasn't so sure.**

This caused most of the council to laugh. "It would seem that this demigod and I think alike." Junas proclaimed to even more bouts of laughter. After settling down again Luke began to read again.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

Monsters sat on the edge of their seats (if they could sit) and waited with apt attention for the reveal.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

"I want to make a trade." Dr. Thorn called out.

"No!" Queen Sess cried clamping a hand over his mouth. "That issss not allowed!"

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

Dr. Thorn had freed himself from Queen Sess's grasp and made another bid at changing his bet. "I bet sh- Ougfff!"

"What did I tell you?" Queen Sess hissed at him after she had knocked him onto he floor.

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"Naturally," Morpheus yawned leaning back in his Lazy Boy recliner.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

"**You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"Oh yes," Luke snapped, interrupting himself again. "_Perfectly_ safe!"

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

Snorts of amusement were heard from around the room.

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"**We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

"That's not a normal monster." Hyerion muttered under his breath. If it was who he thought it was the demigod would never make it out of the situation alive.

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

_I think I do, _Luke thought darkly.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book. **

"**Well?" she demanded.**

"He obviously doesn't know." Iapetus interrupted in annoyance.

"**Ma'am, I don't…"**

"**Your time is up," she hissed.**

**The weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"A fury! A fury was after him!" Kelli yelled.

"I win!" Shouted the master Telekhines from his chair as chaos ensued. No monster wanted to lose their money on a _fury_, the pets of Hades.

Dr. Thorn shook his head. "The godling has no chance of survival."

"There isss a whole book sseriesss made up of this godlingsss memoriesss." Queen Sess said to him. "I doubt he diesss sssso soon."

"But we do not know why Hades sent one of his torturers after the boy." Iapetus acknowledged cutting into the conversation.

It took around half an hour before everyone was ready to continue. Many of the monsters a few dracamas lighter. While most of them sported large wounds from the fighting over who truly got the money. Limia, thankfully, had been talking to her mother Lady Hecate when the other monsters found out that they could not take the money they had betted with back. One look from the goddess of magic and the monsters had been cowed.

During this time Luke had gotten into a discussion with Nyx on one of her children, who was on his way to Mt. Othry, with Kronos and Junas cutting in to talk about their own children every few minutes. It was weird, Luke decided, to find out that Kronos had had demi-titan children before he had been overthrown the first time.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"**What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

Kelli was chewing on her fingernails with worry.

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slach the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's broze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

Atlas tensed at the sword was mentioned. It sounded like the sword his daughter had given Hercules…

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"What a whimp he is for being a child of the big three!" Dr. Thorn said to the agreement of the Minotaur, and Queen Sess.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. **

Luke had to reread that line. He just could not believe that a 12 year old boy with not training could swing a sword naturally.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisssss**_**!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the sir, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

Silence filled the room. "The brat killed a fury without any training?" Altas questioned.

"It would appear so." Kronos threaded his fingers together. "I sense that this is just the beginning of what young Mr. Jackson can do."

"My Lord," Queen Sess addressed the Titan Lord with lightly veiled anger. She may despise the Furies but they were still monsters. "When will we acquire thisss child?"

"As soon as we know his location, Queen Sess. I already have Lycaon preparing his best trackers for this hunt." Flicking his golden eyes around the room Kronos continued. "When he arrived I expect no harm to come to him." Kronos looked pointedly at Queen Sess before he looked over at Luke and gave the silent command to continue.

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

"The mist still affects the godling." Limia muttered to herself, but the room was so quiet that it didn't matter.

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

Nyx and Hecate laughed in amusement while a few others snorted at the demigods blatant refusal to believe what he had seen.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tneted over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" the Minotaur asked as Nyx and many of the monsters had quizzical looks on their faces.

**I said, "Who?"**

"**Our teacher. Duh!"**

"It's the-" Limia was cut off by Dr. Thorn.

"We know, it's the mist."

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

_Leave it to Grover to finally be able to lie,_ Luke reflected sardonically.

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

_Or not,_ Luke couldn't help himself from rolling his eyes.

"**Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring you own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"It fits with him," Hyperion exclaimed.

"What?" Kelli asked.

"The sword, he did not realize he still had it because it felt natural for him to be caring it. Many blades have a… spirit you could say of their own. To some they would not work at all. To others, like young Mr. Jackson, they would feel as if they are a part of you, natural." The titan explained.

"**Sir," I said, "Where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher." **

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

Luke put down the book with a sigh. That was one of the reasons he had sided with Kronos. The way the immortals (Chiron, Mr. D, etc.) that were _supposed _to help demigods understand who and what they are. Always kept the people they were supposed to help in the dark.

Making it far more difficult for demigods to survive as they got older, it did not matter if one knew what they were or not, around the age of eleven the smell of a demigod became more powerful.

"That is the end of the chapter. Who would like to read next?"

"I will," Kelli said before Luke threw the book into her waiting hands.

"**Chapter two Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death"**


	3. Dr Thorn Dies

**I'm sorry this took so long! I have been dealing with a few family emergencies. And some writers block on the next chapter. But never fear, the next chapter is being written as soon as I am finished posting this and sent off to my editor.**

**Alliysa** **thank you for the comment. I will have you know this is a Luke/Percy story and I don't mean to be rude but I have been in the fandom from the very beginning and I may have gone on to other fandoms over the years but I still know what Percabeth means. You don't have to educate me.**

**To my other reviewers; KitkatMoon and Guest thank you. **

* * *

What is in **bold** was written by Rick Riordan and the characters belong to Rick Riordan everything else is mine or common ownership (i.e. the gods, titans, and monsters).

Here is a list of all the characters in the room.

**Titans**: Aigaios, Atlas, Hyperion, Iapetus, Krios, Kronos.

**Gods/Goddesses**: Janus, Morpheus, Hecate, Nyx (I need help with finding the minor gods and goddesses that sided with Kronos, please send me requests)

**Monsters**: Limia, Kelli the Empoisai, Keto, Cacus, Agrius and Oreius, the Gorgons, A group of Hellhounds, Morrian the ice giant, Maenads, Dr. Thron the Manticore, the Minotaur, Queen Sess (queen of the Scythian Dracaenae), the Master Telekhines and Lycaon king of the werewolves.

No other Demigods other than Luke in the reading so far. But they will come in the next chapter.

* * *

_"That is the end of the chapter. Who would like to read next?"_

_"I will," Kelli said before Luke threw the book into her waiting hands._

* * *

**"Chapter Two: Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death"**

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. **

"It is not a trick child," Limia declared. "It is the mist."

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Of course not! The goat could barley lie to save his skin let alone fool a demigod that was slowly realizing what he is!" Luke exploded; he could not believe the audacity of Chiron and that satyr. Continuing to rant about stupid mythical creatures he completely missed Limia shooting a purple light at him. Abruptly his rant was cut off as the spell took effect.

Kelli sent her a grateful look before continuing to read.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something ****_had_**** happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

_We always remember our first monster, _Luke thought finally realizing he couldn't talk. _The first monster is always the scariest._

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year. **

"I wonder what has those upstarts so upset my Lord," Atlas voiced. It was a thought that was on many of the councils minds. This was starting to sound like three years ago when Luke stole the Master bolt from Zeus. Many lives had been lost as Zeus had raged on Olympus like a five year old throwing a tantrum.

"I have an idea," Kronos said, "But I will wait until we are told the reason before I voice my thoughts."

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class. **

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

Dr. Thorn snorted as Queen Sess giggled beside him. It was not often in this era that 'old sot' was used.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told, myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

A few of the immortals noted down where in New York the boy lived. It wasn't an exact address, just an area for them to search, but it was better than nothing. Hopefully the book would tell them exactly where he lived so the collection party would not have to search the entire Upper East Side.

**And yet…there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover,**

Luke snorted and Kelli sneered at the book.

**Who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survived next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Very wissssse," Queen Sess declared. "The demigod isssss sssstarting to lisssten to hissss insssstinctsssss."

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the ****_Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology _****across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"Too bad he is not of Roman descent," Hyperion muttered to Iapetus.

"If he was we would never be able to get a hold of him." replied Iapetus.

Staring off into space for a moment Hyperion nodded his head. "True my friend, very true indeed."

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. ****_I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson._**

"And I will only expect the best from the boy once he is trained," Medusa hissed.

Chiron was getting on her nerves. This was a child of Poseidon and he wasn't even being protected right! Okay, so it was bad for business if every single demigod was protected, but this was one of Poseidon's children and Medusa had to emit she still had the hots for him.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

Medusa's sister Sthenno picked at her talons. Why did they need to hear about the child's school problems? Couldn't they get to the fighting and death already.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

Lycaon nodded his head. "Very good. This sea spawn could be made into a hunter yet."

"You are not biting him." Limia said to him haughtily, The last thing they needed was for the demigod to be turned into one of his mindless bloodthirsty pets.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Really?" Keto said in a bland voice as she raised an eyebrow.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"He does have a point," Cacus said turning to Keto.

She then did the mature thing and gave him the finger. Kronos for his part was ignoring the entire situation, he had more important things to do then regulate the behavior of monsters.

**I inched closer.**

**"…alone this summer," Grover was saying, "I mean, a Kindly One in the ****_school!_**** Now that we know for sure, and ****_they_**** know too-"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline-"**

Luke and many of the immortals with mortal children stiffened at this. This story _was_ about three years ago. And it seemed that young Percy Jackson was now in the thick of it.

Cacus shook his head. "How in Tartarus is this kid going to survive until he turns 16!"

"He doesn't." Keto answered in her most serious voice.

"We ssstill have four bookssss left." Queen Sess reminded the duo. "He ssstayssss alive that long."

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

The book got so many glares at that statement it was surprising that it did not burn up.

**"Sir, he ****_saw_**** her…"**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

_I really don't think that is working, _Hecate thought from her seat as she glanced at Nyx. They were going to have a talk about what would befall the centaur. Even if the two of them had to go behind Knonos's back.

**"Sir, I…I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

More disgusted looks were sent to the book.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

Luke wanted to bang his head into the wall. The first rule of stealth was never make a sound that could give away your position! Damn, he was starting to sound like the old councilor's of the Hermes cain back at Camp Half-blood. That was not good.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

_And he just has to be in his true form,_ Luke rolled his eyes. The centaur was just asking to be found out.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow ****_clop-clop-clop_****, like muffled wood blacks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

"It's a very good thing he is at school," Lycaon told the room.

Getting black faces he rolled his eyes before explaining. "The demigod, what is his name... Percy walks up and down that hallway all the time for classes. His scent would not be distinguishable from the old one that still lingered in the hall. At least not to that of a centaur."

Finally Lycaon got the reaction he had expected with immortals and monsters nodding their heads in understanding.

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

Luke snorted at this before ignored the stares he was getting as he took a short trip down memory lane. Chiron's nerves hadn't been right in this timeline, universe, whatever it was that was different. either. Oh, how Luke had enjoyed messing with the centaur.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn…"**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

Nyx shook her head in disgust. "He should know everything from all the years he has had to be in schools looking for Demigods."

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

Atlas nodded his head, it was always imperative to know the enemy was gone before one moved out of their position when spying. Even if this demigod was not the child of prophecy he would still be useful to the cause.

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." **

"Jee, thanks for that wonderful comment," Kelli quipped sarcastically. Looking over at the still silent Luke she again asked if the satyr died a painful death.

Nodding Luke gestured for her to continue reading.

**He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just…tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed. **

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misplaced, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

"Is it always like this?" Nyx asked Luke.

Nodding Luke thought about how hard it was for him to read books in the mortal world. Not to mention actually going to school and trying to get a good grade so a demigod (if they survived to college age) could go to a good college. It just did not happen. _Unless_, a small part of him thought, _you were a child of Athena that is. _

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's…It's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean…" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

Setting down the book Kelli looked up at Kronos. "I am allowed to kill the girl child yes? And the centaur too?"

Kronos appraised Kelli. Her eyes held a fire he had never seen in the Empoisai before. Looking around the room, he noted many others, both monsters and immortals, which wanted the girls life ended. "The girl is yours. As for my _son, _we shall see. We may need a more...painful death for him then you can muster."

Taking what she could get Kelli dipped her head in Kronos's direction. "Thank you My Lord." Picking up the book she began to read again.

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

"We are really wasting our time on a whimp?" Dr. Thorn asked as he sharpened his claws on the floor. "Ow!" He cried as a sneaker hit him in the face.

Turning to look at the only person in the room with sneakers Dr. Thorn growled. Luke for his part had the look of bored innocence on his face. One of his legs tucked under him, the other set on the floor. Raising an eyebrow to the manticore, Luke was all but asking for Dr. Thorn to comment.

His tail swishing behind him Dr. thorn was about to send a volley of spikes at the kid before a glare was sent at him from Kronos. Cowed he settled for glaring at the demigod instead.

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say…you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of term, I shoveled my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were ****_rich_**** juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

Kronos simply stared straight ahead at that. It was true in this day and age that immortals were not given their proper respect and acknowledgment. And to a normal mortal, all demigods were nobodies. But that hardly meant that they were nobodies in _their_ world. Without them, all immortals would fade away. Each demigod was important, even if he ate a few of them, they were important.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

_There is nothing wrong with that,_ Luke thought as he remembered all the odd jobs he had done when he was younger to survive. School had always been the last thing he worried about.

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

_To them you probably didn't, _Limia thought as she braided a misery knot.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Oh, yes." Hyperion said. "Give the goat a heart attack."

"We could give him to Polyphemus then," Krios stated thinking about what he could get out of that exchange, one of those man eating sheep would do.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh…not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

"So basically he heard all of it, at least all the important parts." Morrian voiced.

**He winced. "Look, Percy…I was just worried for you, see? I mean hallucinating about demon math teachers…"**

**"Grover-"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and…"**

_Your screwed Grover,_ Luke couldn't help but mentally tapdance. Causing Kronos who had been snooping around his mind to snort quietly. He still couldn't believe how much Luke hated the goat.

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

"And they call us cruel," Atlas muttered.

It was true the Titans were, and still are, cruel but they rarely were cruel to their own children, Kronos being an acceptation. But once one of their children sided with the enemy, that changed everything, The titans would do everything in their power to destroy the threat.

**"What's Half-"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um….summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

Luke finally broke the spell by using the little magic he could do, Slowly he chipped away at the energy that fed the spell, weakening it little by little. When the spell finally was to weak to protect itself he sent a pulse of pure energy through the spell shattering it. Luke watched Limia wearily as he said. "Don't worry, their not."

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I wanted to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or…or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Oh, I don't know. So you don't die a grizzly death." Somebody in the room stated.

"Eaten by monsters." Keto added.

"Struck down by the gods." Hyperion put in.

"Killed by your siblings." Luke inserted.

Everybody looked at him funny at that.

"What? It's true! Poseidon does have a large number of monster children." Luke defended himself.

Kelli started to read again before anyone else could comment. It was getting late and they all still had duties to perform. She was waiting for Ethan, who was on the ship full of new demigod recruits, to IM her.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. Lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended ****_me_****.**

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

Cacus opened his mouth to answer when Medusa hissed from her seat. "The next person to speak out of line will be turned to stone!"

**There was a huge grinding noise under out feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like roten eggs. The driver cursed and limoed the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

_Thats not supposed to happen, _Janus though exchanging looks with the other gods_. _Something big was about to happen.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everyone else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

_That is not a normal fruit stand, _Morpheus though projecting it to the other gods. Nyx knew what was coming and could only nod in agreement. Her triplets did like that stretch of road.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd even seen.**

The room tensed but no one said anything as they all figured out who the three old ladies were.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

With a shaking voice Kelli continued to read. Everyone was so focused on what she was saying if somebody had walked in on the council at that moment they would have been unnerved.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

_Great,_ Nyx thought rolling her eyes. What were the triplets going to impart on this demigod now?

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are aren't they?"**

_Yes, yes they are, and as I said earlier. You are so screwed. _This time there was no tap dancing going on in Luke's head. Only worry.

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

Both Nyx and Hecate rolled their eyes at the saytrs antics. If the triplets wanted someone to see something it would happen, if a string was to be cut, it would. It did not matter if the person was not in sight of the string.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that ****_snip_**** across four lanes of traffic. **

"There is no way that _this_ child could be the child of prophecy!" Dr. Thorn exploded. "He has already had his string cut, I do not see why we must waist our time reading these books."

"Thorn!" Atlas bellowed out but it was too late.

The gorgon sisters had already descended on the manticore. Nothing could be seen of Thorn except the tip of his tail, but even that didn't last for long. A scream of distress was heard shortly before the sound of stone crashing into the floor. As the dust cleared the rubble that had been the Manticore was slowly fading away to nothing. It would take a few weeks before Thorn could regenerate and by that time his place on the council would be given to another.

Moving back to their seats the gorgon sisters looked around the room. A glint of Medusa's eyes was the only thing that could be seen behind the veil she wore. "I told you all before that the next person to speak out of line would be punished." Her warm Middle Eastern accented voice filed the room. "That statement still stands. It is getting late and I know we all have duties to perform outside of this reading. Let us finish this chapter so we can get to bed at a reasonable hour."

Kronos nodded to Medusa, slightly pissed that he would need to find another monster to fill the manticore's seat, but not surprised it had happened. The manticore had been stepping on toes from the beginning. Kronos turned to Kelli and motioning for her to begin.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla. **

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. **

Nyx straightened in her chair as almost everyone in the room started to worry for the demigod. Her triplets couldn't of killed him off so soon, there were still four more books after this one.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything," Nyx said more to herself then to the rest of the room.

Everyone froze as Medusa turned to the goddess of night. Nyx for her part only raised an eyebrow. "Try it child and you will be spending one million years in tartarus. You couldn't turn me to stone even if you tried."

Sitting back in her seat Medusa huffed.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like…Mrs. Doods, are they?"**

_Nope, their wrose. _Luke mentally muttered shuddering at the thought of meeting the fates. He hoped it never happened.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

Luke tensed as the satyr mentioned the disastrous event on half-blood hill. They had promised to be a family….

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"Oh, just him failing to do what his job entails," Luke muttered lowly so that only Kronos could hear. Kronos made a note that Luke was really going to have to spar tonight before he exploded at the wrong moment and attacked the wrong person. It had happened before.

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does it mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

Kelli closed the book. "That was the end of the chapter."

No one moved. The end of that chapter had left most of the council deep in thought. They knew that this Percy Jackson could not have died for there were five books filled with his memories for them to read. So that begged the question, who's string had gotten cut? And why were the fates showing it to the young hero?

"It is late," Kronos stated. "I expect every one of you to be here tomorrow at eight sharp. We will continue the life of young Mr. Jackson then. You are all dismissed."

The gods and Titans flashed out of the room while the monsters headed out the door to do whatever it was they did at night. Most were going to go hunting, some of the more sophisticated ones where going to play Mario cart into the wee hours of the night then get some rest. Others, well they were just going to sleep.

Kelli was going to consult the Empoisai she had left in charge of the recruiting section to see if Ethan had checked in. She was lucky she had decided to check with the Empoisai when she did because right before her eyes Ethan shimmered into view.

His black hair was tangled from the gusts of wind she could hear in the background. The black eye patch looked more weathered than it had since his last IM. In all he was haggard looking. "I'm glad I caught you." He said tiredly. "We just made it through the Panama Canal, but Poseidon is not pleased. He sent a hurricane after us right before we made it to the Atlantic side of the Canal. We lost a quarter of our staff to that storm. But luckily no demigods have died."

"That is good." Kelli said, concern coloring her voice. "When do you think you will be docking?"

"We should be docking by six tomorrow morning." Ethan replied before he turned to his left and snapped an order to Agrius and Oreius. It had been decided with the goddess of balance as a mother, and being a close friend of Luke's, that Ethan would lead the quest to find more recruits.

"Good, you will be needed at the War room tomorrow at eight. Bring a group of Demigods you believe will not betray us with you. More will be explained then." Kelli ordered. "I need to tell Lord Kronos that you will be here tomorrow."

Nodding. Ethan sighed. "Very well. I need to go check on the new recruits anyways. A few of them were trying to kill each other."

Nodding in understanding Kelli said, "Be safe," in fair well.

"You too." Said offhandedly as he looked at something to his right. Ethan slashed through the IM and it began to fade but the Empoisai still heard him yell. "That's it! You two are on kitchen duty for the night and when w-"

Shaking her head Kelli said goodnight to her fellow Empoisai before heading toward her Lords chambers. _If I'm lucky,_ she thought_, I can catch Luke before he leaves for his own rooms. It would make this a lot easier. _Unlike most of her fellow she-demons, Kelli did not believe that Kronos and Luke were lovers. As a demon that used love magic to seduce her victims,Kelli had a better understanding of when two people were in love then most, and the Titan leader and his second in command _where not_ together.

She was so lost in thought Kelli had not realized that she was at her destination until the doors opened on their own. Stepping into the room cautiously, Kelli spotted Kronos behind a cedar desk. He was reading reports with a plate of food off to the side looking like it hadn't been touched.

"Ignore him," Luke's voice said from her left.

Turning she spotted him leaning on a doorframe that lead farther into Kronos's apartment. An amused expression adorned his face as he watched her before flicking his gaze over to the titan. Making a split second decision Luke crooked a finger at Kelli in invitation to follow him deeper into the rooms.

As Luke turned around and headed toward the dining room, Kelli looked between the two worriedly. Was she allowed any farther? Why did Luke have a look on his face as if he was planning something devious and she was unwittingly part of it?

"Are you coming?" Slight annoyance laced his voice as he called from another room.

Having no choice but to follow, Kelli walked farther into her Lords personal chambers. Soon she found Luke sitting at a dining table set for two, one of the plates was missing from its spot on the table. That one she assumed was the one next to Kronos on his desk. If she had to guess. Luke had just set it down on the desk before she had entered. A red wine sat open next to Luke's half empty glass. His plate was also half full of food and Kelli realized that she had interrupted his dinner. Before she could stammer out an apology Luke looked up at her and gestured for her to take a seat.

"Why did you disrupt my dinner?" He asked twirling his wine glass in his hand.

"I-I had just gotten word from Ethan that he will be docked by six tomorrow morning." Licking her lips in worry she continued. "I assumed y-you would like to be told immediately, sir."

Luke watched her with a bland stare, making her squirm in the process. "Anything else?"

"O-oh…ah…I told Ethan to pick a group of demigods he trusts and bring them with him tomorrow to the reading."

"I see," setting down his glass, Luke continued. "Lycaon will be with us when we steal Percy from his home. I assume you will be coming also?"

"If it would please My Lord," Kelli answered, not knowing where this was going. Though many of her brethren considered the demigod before her a joke Kelli knew that he was capable of great things, terrible things, she had even seen him do some of those things. And once one saw him do that, no one could look at him as if he was a joke again. It didn't help that he was so handsome.

Leaning back in his seat as if he had just gotten what he wanted, Luke asked another question. "What would you do to go fetch the kid?"

"What?"

"I said what would you do to be able to fetch the kid?" Luke asked in a straight face.

"I-I…I would….I" Kelli stammered unable to, no refusing to understand what he was implying.

"Luke," Kronos purred from behind Kelli. "Don't go scarring away my minions."

Kelli jumped at the close proximity between her and the titan. _And did he just call her a minion?! _She started to fume as the two men continued to talk.

"I was only having a bit of fun." Luke defended. "It's not like I would actually do it. My _father_ is the trickster god, I have to get my kicks somewhere."

"That may be," Kronos stated. "But make sure it is focused away from my army."

"Fine." Luke murmured sullenly, returning to his dinner of roast and grilled potatoes with wild rice.

The two went on to discuss what Kelli had told Luke. It was decided that the demigods Ethan had picked out would be on the team that kidnapped Percy. Then shortly after that the two got into a debate about how they should deal with the gods. They could not allow them to find out about the books, or Percy for that matter.

The two were so engrossed in their planning that they missed Kelli slipping out of the apartment. She had given her report at the expense of embarrassment. Kelli knew Luke was a son of Hermes but usually he did not show the traits his siblings did. _That just gives me more to think about,_ she grumbled to herself as she stepped into her rooms. Kelli had to get some sleep now if she wanted to be up when Ethan got back.


End file.
